Network

The Prince Claus Fund is connected to an expansive global network of artists, cultural organisations and critical thinkers.

When asked what the Fund's motto 'Culture is a Basic Need' means to them, we received the following responses from various project partners:

"Culture is intricately linked to social and political questions; like food, shelter, health and education, we have an absolutely essential need to make our individual cultural expressions seen and heard; culture thus is a question of our survival. Hence, it is our right to be able to make our own cultural expressions, without having to succumb to the powers of cultural hegemonies." – Bhowmik, Bangladesh and India

"It means that Culture makes people look at each other like humans and not like numbers, not like consumers, not like machine components." – Shahnoza Karimbabaeva, Uzbekistan

"Culture is the only factor that is universal to all societies and it connects us as a universal language. It’s the secret element that connects us to great collective unconscious. I also believe that it is as essential to us as the other well-established basic physical needs." – Shehzad Chowdhury, Bangladesh

"The human need to express is the root of creativity." – Karen Ocampo Flores, Philippines

"Culture is a basic need because as a shared experience a group of people, nation or civilization, it mirrors the memory, spirit, struggles and the aspirations of humanity." – Liza Maza, the Philippines

"No society can function without culture. Hence, culture is a basic need, and practicing it should be a basic right." – Yuki Poudyal, Nepal

people in the network

Tejumola Olaniyan

Tejumola Olaniyan is Louise Durham Mead Professor of English, African, and African Diaspora cultural studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He received his BA and MA from the Obafemi Awolowo University in Nigeria, and PhD from Cornell University.
He taught at the University of Virginia from 1991 to 2001. Olaniyan has been at UW Madison since 2001 and is currently chair of...

Nani Jansen Reventlow

Nani Jansen Reventlow is a human rights lawyer specialised in strategic litigation and freedom of expression. She is the founding Director of the Digital Freedom Fund, which supports partners in Europe to advance digital rights through strategic litigation. Nani is also an Associate Tenant at Doughty Street Chambers and an Affiliate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet...

Clarice Gargard

Clarice M.D. Gargard (United States, Liberia, the Netherlands) is a journalist, columnist and filmmaker. She has worked for BNNVARA, AT5, NRC, Vogue and the Correspondent, among others. In 2019, she will represent the Netherlands as UN-Women Representative at the United Nations. She is an advocate of political and social themes such as emancipation and equality. Gargard was...